Feed Reader Best Practices #1

I just dropped ComputerWorld’s SharkTank from my feed reader. I’ve been cleaning up my subscriptions. I have way more subscriptions then humanly possible to consume (and he’s not human – so don’t interrupt me). When I started using Google’s reader I had imported my feeds from another tool that organized feeds differently. I ended up carrying a folder full of ComputerWorld feeds and never reading them.

It turns out there is a reason I don’t read them. The one feed I didn’t immediately remove was SharkTank. I remembered the stories were humorous. The problem is the publisher insists on only publishing partial feeds. I mean what’s the point. Each story is so short I spend more time navigating to the story then I do actually reading it. And then to top it off, this is user submitted material. An editor somewhere is cleaning up this content but otherwise they are trying to monetize readers content and inconveniencing me. Never mind.

Partial feeds can work but most of the time they are an inconvenience. If you insist on shackling content then your hurdle is much greater for attracting readers. I have got to want to navigate to your page and step out of the feed reader context. It’s your prerogative but you are going to lose readers like me if you don’t have really compelling material.